Campus Safety

Be Safe on Campus

The Princeton Review has partnered with LiveSafe to educate and empower today's students to live safely on and around college campuses.

Safety on and around college campuses is a key concern for everyone. We know from visiting hundreds of college campuses and high schools each year and speaking to students and their parents that campus safety is of great concern to all of you. We’re here to help with timely information that we hope empowers and informs your college decisions. Here are the best resources and information available on campus safety.

The rising sexual assault statistics on campuses have recently warranted increased advocacy and the creation of a White House task force focused on addressing this issue with the seriousness it demands. Existing federal legislation requires colleges and universities to:

Disclose their security policies

Keep a public crime log

Publish an annual crime report

Provide timely warnings to students and campus employees about a crime posing an immediate or ongoing threat to students and campus employees

You can find links to individual schools’ annual crime reports on the "Campus Safety” tab on our school profile pages. The statute also ensures certain basic rights for victims of campus sexual assaults and requires the U.S. Department of Education to collect and disseminate campus crime statistics.

Maintaining a safe campus requires more than complying with the Clery Act, Title IX, and other legislation. Educational programs instituted across all components of the campus system, including students, faculty, staff, and safety officials are key. Bystander intervention and trauma-informed training programs are also critical to fostering a culture of safety, concern, and mutual responsibility for the campus community.

Check out what type of support and help is available on-campus for students dealing with depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts. Resources may include:

What resources are available to students coping with depression, anxiety, and/or suicidal thoughts?

How are students made aware of these resources?

What programs are available to help students develop stress-management skills?

News reports and government action around sexual assault on campuses have spurred colleges to take action. Check out what the colleges on your target list are doing to prevent assaults. Resources may include:

Safety committees made up of students, campus security and police

Climate surveys to gauge student sentiment

Culture of inclusion: campus + community events, intramural activities for students and campus police

Safety tools like LiveSafe, security escorts, and safe rides

Ask the college:

What is the relationship like between police/students?

How often does the campus seek feedback from the community regarding safety and security issues?

What programs, initiatives, mobile apps, and/or environments exist for students and safety officials to interact on campus?

A campus climate survey of 27 institutions of higher education, the goal of which was to provide participating institutions of higher education with information to inform policies to prevent and respond to sexual assault and misconduct.

As stated in its mission, the Clery Center for Security On Campus is “a nonprofit 501(c)(3) dedicated to preventing violence, substance abuse and other crimes on college and university campuses across the United States, and to compassionately assist the victims of these crimes.”

Created by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, NotAlone.gov provides resources for those working to prevent or respond to sexual assault on college and university campuses. The website provides information on victims' rights, crisis centers, how to file a complaint, and links to federal data and reports on the topic.

Colleges and universities are required to respond to assault and sexual harassment complaints under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. In the event that a school fails to comply with the law, a student may file a complaint through the DOE's Office for Civil Rights. (More information on how to file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights and/or the Department of Justice is available at www.notalone.gov/students ).

While the vast majority of both two- and four-year colleges and universities in the United States prohibit firearms on campus, this resource covers individual state laws that allow guns on public campuses.

LiveSafe is the leading mobile safety communications platform delivering actionable crowdsourced safety and security intelligence, preventing incidents before they occur and connecting people to the help they need. Used by businesses, colleges, and universities, LiveSafe's enterprise-class platform is backed by a team with safety in their DNA and combines a cloud-based Command Dashboard with customizable mobile applications.

The Staff of The Princeton Review

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